Quadruple Homicide – PGI is interviewed

One week after Guilderland family was found slain in their Western Avenue home, detectives remain on scene. Geoff Redick reports.

GUILDERLAND, N.Y. — Four state police vans arrived back at the home at 1846 Western Avenue Wednesday morning, after Time Warner Cable News had been told two days ago, the forensic investigation was all but wrapped up.

Jin Feng Chen, his wife Hai Yan Li, and their sons Anthony and Eddy were found dead in the home last Wednesday.

“You have to spend hours, and hours, and hours. You don’t want to miss anything,” said investigator Lisa Schoneman.

Lisa Schoneman is a 25-year homicide investigator, who once worked a quadruple homicide herself. She’s now with the Capital Region’s Peeler Group International investigation firm.

“You can take out thousands of pieces of evidence, and if you just miss that one minute detail, that could solve it all. So it doesn’t matter if it takes a week or it takes a month; you have to make sure that you get everything,” she said.

That could include items as large as a weapon, or so small, they’re invisible to the naked eye.

“Blood spatters and patterns of where the assailant may have been standing. Bloody footprints, hand prints,” Schoneman said.

Schoneman stressed to have patience for investigators, as they comb through a case that’s gone far beyond Guilderland, to New York City and China.

But some refuse to wait. Tuesday, two men move out of the house next door. They told Time Warner Cable News it was because of the murders.

But Wednesday, investigators spent time in that neighboring home as well, looking for any new clues, as the clock ticks on an investigation, already old by police standards.

“They’ll continue until they get what they need. But the more time that goes by, the more difficult it becomes,” Schoneman said.

A week into the Guilderland quadruple homicide investigation, and the community is learning more about what police may be up against as they investigate this crime. Geoff Redick has the story.

GUILDERLAND, N.Y. — The investigation into the quadruple homicide in Guilderland has moved to New York City and to China. That’s where, according to experts, things will become very deep and potentially dangerous to investigators.

Bill Peeler owns an international investigation and security firm, based in the Capital Region.

With 28 years experience in sheriff’s investigations and private work, Peeler believes the massacre of an entire Chinese family in Guilderland, including children, is much more than a local crime.

“I think it’d much more pronounced, much more public… (Reporter: “To kill a child?”) to kill a child,” he said.

“You don’t go in and murder an entire family, unless you’re trying to send a message,” said investigator Lisa Schoneman.

Lisa Schoneman works for Peeler, but spent the prior 25 years in the Pasco County Major Crimes Unit, in Florida.

“In the 25 years that I was a detective, there was only one quadruple homicide I investigated. So it is rare,” she said.

Monday, State Police confirmed their investigation has taken them far from Guilderland, to New York City, and to China.

Peeler and Schoneman both said that revelation lends itself to cultural crime, likely based in Asian illegal trafficking and gambling. Peeler encountered it himself once, in the state of Maine.

“Chinese folks from other areas or neighboring communities would find out about the game, because they were very well-publicized within the community. They would come over and hold-up their own people, and steal the money from the gaming,” said Peeler.

“China has been up there on the high-scale of human trafficking, and in the last few years they’ve been working with the United States and other countries to try to curb this,” Schoneman said.

Above all, Peeler and Schoneman said the close-knit Chinese community surrounding this case, will be the key to solving it. But getting those people to come forward, will be hardest.

“If it is directly involving organized crime or an organized group, there’s going to be the fear factor. They use intimidation as a tool every day,” said Peeler.

“But what they need to realize, is they’re already at risk. If they know, if they have any information, their family is already at risk. They’re better off coming forward,” Schoneman said.

For a time, Peeler said his company provided security detail for a Chinese restaurant owner in New York City. Peeler says every time that man went out in New York, he required a bodyguard. He said the reason was he had a lot of money, and knew a lot of other Chinese wanted it. Peeler said Asian organized crime is not something to be messed with.